


The Abyss

by plantedpluto



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Abyss - Freeform, Daughter of Chaos and Nyx, M/M, Mansion of Night, Protogenoi of Misery and Poison, River Cocytus, Son of Hades, Tartarus, chasm - Freeform, quote from Jason Grace, quote from Percy Jackson, quote from Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, quotes from Will Solace, solangelo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:27:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27854218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plantedpluto/pseuds/plantedpluto
Summary: Oh, Nico, my dear boy,the voice continued.I am a goddess that causes pain, regret, destroys dreams with my purpose of life, for I am Akhlys, Protogenoi of Misery and Poison.I've never stood before you,Nico grumbled.You came to me, in a dream, just like now.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	The Abyss

Darkness 

Pure darkness. 

Nico couldn't see a foot ahead of him even if he moved. It was like his eyes were closed even though they were wide open. 

Was reality even a concept anymore? 

Time was difficult there. 

He didn't want to see, he didn't want the smog to clear, he didn't want to feel the crunching shards of glass under his feet any longer. He didn't want any of that. He wanted to be back home. To Nico, Camp Half-Blood was home. 

His eyes stung like a million tiny daggers were stabbing his corneas, nearly causing him to lose sight of the little space surrounding him. The smoke cleared as coughs still erupted from his dehydrated throat. Nico had agreed to do this. He'd agreed to go farther than the Underworld's Fields of Punishment. He'd agreed to jump into the worst part of the world. 

He'd agreed to fall into the pits of Tartarus. 

Alone. 

Once again. 

Nico felt alone at other times, but at that time he really was alone. He had to convince himself that his loneliness dissipated, he had finally found happiness, though his life beforehand had been tragic. 

"I am not alone, not anymore, I am loved." Nico repeated in a hushed mantra. He had to keep himself sane no matter how many times the souls tried to take over his thoughts. He couldn't give up, not now. 

The voices weren't easily drowned out, they were persistent as if they wanted him to dive in. It wasn't the urging of the wailing spirits that hurt, it was the words they spoke. 

_Bianca left because she didn't love you._

_Your absence has gone unnoticed._

_We can put you out of your misery._

They kept singing like they were sirens deceiving ship captains in to their deaths. They ran a hard bargain. 

He trudged on, he needed to leave this horrible place. He had to return for his friend's' sake. He had to escape this — what felt like an inescapable nightmare. The dream of forgotten dreams. He just couldn't wake up. He wasn't there, he knew he wasn't. 

His feet punctured like needles impaling a pincushion as the shards of glass broke the soles of his shoes. The dim red hue of the prison was coloured like the dark, crimson blood of the dead. Nico's mantra didn't waver, he needed reassurance, even if he had to do it himself. The battle cries of monsters rumbled through the chasm sending shivers down his spine. The chants of the spirits of the River Cocytus didn't stop, neither did the son of Hades' stable beliefs. 

Nico wanted to scream back at them, tell them what they declared were lies. Before his mind could reject the almost reasonable thought, and realize the future error of his ways, he had already bellowed the words. 

"I am _not_ alone! People love me!" he called into the shadows. In hindsight, he didn't think about the monsters he mind have attracted. 

"_Are you sure about that?_" A voice said from the darkness. It doubted Nico's ambitions. This figure in the murk seemed humanoid. It didn't beg for him to give in like the spirits of the River Cocytus, it tried to persuade Nico that he was the one telling lies instead of hearing the lies. 

"_Do people really love you Nico di Angelo?_"

"If you're a monster, show yourself." Nico demanded. "I'm not afraid of you." The figure did not divulge it's true form. It remained in the shadows to lure Nico forward. He stood firm, waiting for it to reciprocate, his Stygian Iron sword gripped tightly in his hands, knuckles turning white. 

"_Why, you don't remember me?_" the silhouette said wryly. "_We've met before. I find it insulting you cannot recognize my persona._"

"What do you expect from me?" Nico said sternly. He was sick of the mind games, wanting to traipse ahead and kill the creature instead of waiting in his forcibly stopped journey. "It's not like I take a leisurely stroll in Tartarus every other day."

"_Oh, Nico, my dear boy,_" the voice continued. "_I am a goddess that causes pain, regret, destroys dreams with my purpose of life, for I am Akhlys, Protogenoi of Misery and Poison._"

"I've never stood before you," Nico grumbled. "You came to me, in a dream, just like now."

Akhlys let out a cackle that shook the ground, causing Nico to land on the shard filled terrain. It tore his clothes to shreds, causing cuts to spill blood, ranging from his face to his legs. He stood up. He wouldn't be bested by a protogenos. He wouldn't show fear. 

"_I know, isn't it a shame? It is always a great honor to stand in my presence. Ask Perseus Jackson and Annabeth Chase._" Akhlys sighed, hints of mockery still settled in her tone. "_Now you stand upon my brother, in front of my home: The Mansion of Night. Oh Night — how I love my mother Nyx._"

"I'm not here, I won't be fooled."

"_Oh, but you are son of Hades,_" Akhlys said monotone. "_This is not a dream, not one of your freak nightmares. You offered to arrive here, by your own accord._"

"You're lying. I agreed in a dream." Nico insisted. "You lie like the souls in the River Cocytus."

"If only," Akhlys answered as she finally stepped out of the shadows. Her sunken eyes displayed little emotion through taunting Nico. Her grey hair was stringy and her body was littered with dust from living in her home of sorrow. 

"Do you remember what I told you that night?" she grinned interlocking her fingers together like she was to say a prayer. Though, Nico doubted any god would ever listen to her pleas. 

"You said I had too much grief in my life that you couldn't add to my pain." Nico answered. She'd opened that memory and now Nico couldn't stop thinking about it. 

"A strong mind," she complimented. Knowing the consciences of a monster of Tartarus, her next statement would be worse. "I'm surprised you haven't been driven insane."

"Enough with your futile stalling," he growled. "Explain what you want from me."

"Indeed," she paused. "I can finally add to your misery. I can shatter the happiness you wish to return to. They'll break like glass and shatter to millions of pieces." she told him. It was like someone else was there watching it go down, silently laughing at him. Nico was partially right. Tartarus wasn't just a place, it was a real entity. 

"How exactly would you do that?" Nico asked, his tone growing more agitated as Akhlys circled him. Suddenly it occurred to him. Something she could taunt and ruin. Something she could destroy every possibility of. Something she could get inside his head and force him to think about otherwise. 

"Ah yes," Akhlys nodded in satisfaction. It was like she could read his mind. "Yes, Nico, I can take them away. I can persuade you of things that you will deny aren't true, until you lose your sanity and agree."

He didn't respond right away, but rather saw different moments that happened recently. Like a memory diary. 

\- 

"_Nico, I've seen a lot of brave things. But what you just did? That was maybe the bravest._"

"_We had one home, now we have two._"

"_No more Underworld-y stuff, doctor's orders._"

"_I'm not your type... Wait. So—_"

"_I apologize for my boyfriend._"

"_Would you prefer Special Guy? or Significant Other?_"

"_Nico's going to pass out any second._"

"_I'm calling you Debbie Downer from now on._"

"_Okay Signor Mytho-magic._"

"_That's night-night for Nico._"

"_You're with friends._"

"_Have a Kit Kat._"

"_Can you not make a big deal about it?_"

"_No one hits my boyfriend!_"

\- 

"My friends love me, and so does Will. He would never hurt me." Nico insisted. He considered darting at her, then decided against it. If she had something more to say, so be it. He loved all the more reason to charge at her. 

"Then where is he, Nico di Angelo?" Akhlys whispered in his ear. The shiver returned along with his rage. Hot tears — that felt like they would evaporate — streamed his stinging face. 

"Where is your Will Solace? You're Significant Annoyance?"

She was right, where was he? If Nico had to survive in Tartarus alone once again, why couldn't Will have come? After all, Will had promised. Nico shook the thought away. Akhlys was already beginning to influence his thoughts, he couldn't let her convince him that easily. 

"Where is your knight in shining armor? You're only sunshine?" she said in a singsong voice. 

"_You are my sunshine,_" her voice muttered mockingly as she stepped back into the shadows. "_My only sunshine..._" she reiterated, her voice a bit deeper — and oddly, sweeter. 

Nico gasped, the air no longer drying his throat closing his esophagus. Akhlys really was lying, he wasn't in Tartarus. She baited him, it was a trap. Did his mind make her up in his dreams, or did she really appear there? 

He was sitting upright in his bed, his face buried and body curled in the warm embrace of his Sunshine. His tears didn't stop, the nightmare was vivid. It felt so real. 

Will was his knight in shining armor. The two boys were in cabin 13, as the son of Apollo comforted Nico after a lucid echo of one of the worst moments in his life. His embrace was like the sun god himself. Happiness and love, light in the dark; things Nico needed. 

Will was muttering the song, over and over again. As Akhlys faded out of his dream, singing the same song, her voice altering, it was Nico waking up to Will. 

"It was vivid. I genuinely thought it was real." Nico sobbed. His boyfriend's chin was planted on his head as he rocked Nico. "The mind games, all of it."

"She told me it was all real, and said you never cared about me." Nico said, his tone calming every time he leaned into Will in the rocking motion. 

"I will never not care about you," Will promised, stroking the hair on the back of Nico's head. "You're my Death Boy."

"What did you hear? When I spoke out loud from my nightmare?" Nico asked abruptly. He often screamed and talked in his sleep when he had nightmares about Tartarus. 

"Your confidence. Your insistence in being brave. Asking the monster to come out — I would have insisted it to stay hidden," Will paused. "I would have hidden from it."

"So you think you would've been a coward?" Nico joked wrapping his arms around Will's neck, looking up into his cerulean blue eyes. 

"Hey!" Will threw his hands up as Nico shuffled back to the end of the bed. "I can only do so much with a bow and I can't spar for the life of me. I'm a healer, not a fighter."

"I guess we have some work to do." Nico chuckled as he hugged Will again. "Thank you."

"Any time." Will reciprocated, squeezing his boyfriend in a hug that was even tighter. 

"One more thing." Nico requested. 

"Yeah?"

"Can you sing it again?" Nico asked grinning, even if Will couldn't see it. My Only Sunshine coming from Will's voice was beautiful. 

Without a word of confirmation, his Significant Annoyance obliged. 

"_Oh, Nico di Angelo... how easy it is to manipulate you,_" Akhlys' voice echoed from what seemed like the back of his mind. 

Will's figure turned dark and frail, the hue of the room changing back to its crimson nightmare. Nico was not in a dream. "Nico! Help me!" his voice begged. 

"Will— No! Please don't leave me!" Nico shrieked. 

He reached out just enough to meet Will's cool fingertips as the son of Apollo crumpled into black dust. Nico held the pile towards him, the powder slowly slipping from his grasp. "_He does love you, I see that in his dreams. You were right._" she taunted. "_It's unfortunate you cannot return to him... I was just becoming fond of him..._"

"You'll regret that," Nico growled as he darted at Akhlys, sword in hand. Slashing her over and over was no use, he couldn't make it out, and the goddess wouldn't die. 

This was Nico's end. 

If it wasn't a dream.

**Author's Note:**

> There's not a part two for this because it was meant to be a quick write.  
> I feel evil. It was going to just be a nightmare and he'd wake up to Will (which did happen but it was... fake? maybe) but then I was like: "I need another twist."


End file.
